New building purchased by Fanshawe
Fanshawe College hopes to strengthen a diminishing trades industry with its latest purchase.
With aspirations of using it for skilled trades and industrial courses, Fanshawe College has purchased the former Small Business Centre on Oxford Street East from the city of London for $1.1 million.
The college's purchase of the 2.4-hectare property will fill a large void for the school said Bernice Hull, vice-president of planning and administrative services for Fanshawe.
“Even though we've been doing a lot of building, we continue to have space constraints,” Hull said to the London Free Press.
With Ontario facing a shortage of blue-collar workers, Fanshawe will utilize the building in hopes of combating the shortage of workers by training as many as 1000 students focusing on manufacturing and technology, skills that will be used daily by industries along the Oxford St. corridor.
“It gives us an opportunity to respond to the kind of skilled trades that will be needed by employers in the future. On main campus we have no space for a big footprint building,” Hull said in a London Free Press article.
Agricultural and construction equipment, aviation and automotive training may take place in the new Fanshawe facility, located a block over from main campus.
“Some programs tend to need an industrial space with high ceilings and a lot of floor room,” Hull said.
“If you imagine a combine or large construction equipment, we couldn't fit that into some of our regular buildings.”
Mitchell Baran, chief executive of Trudell Medical Group, whose company lost the bidding war with Fanshawe College for the Oxford St. facility, did not agree with the city of London's decision to choose Fanshawe as the suitor but conceded that it was a difficult choice to make for the city.
“It's a tough trade-off for city council to make,” Baran said. “The issue is to whether to take the most money on the table, or do you look at the long term gain?”
Baran acknowledged the economic benefits of Fanshawe training students whose skills are in demand by industries within the city, but also pointed out that only 200 students would get trained per year, a less attractive fact in the deal.
With aspirations of using it for skilled trades and industrial courses, Fanshawe College has purchased the former Small Business Centre on Oxford Street East from the city of London for $1.1 million.
The college's purchase of the 2.4-hectare property will fill a large void for the school said Bernice Hull, vice-president of planning and administrative services for Fanshawe.
“Even though we've been doing a lot of building, we continue to have space constraints,” Hull said to the London Free Press.
With Ontario facing a shortage of blue-collar workers, Fanshawe will utilize the building in hopes of combating the shortage of workers by training as many as 1000 students focusing on manufacturing and technology, skills that will be used daily by industries along the Oxford St. corridor.
“It gives us an opportunity to respond to the kind of skilled trades that will be needed by employers in the future. On main campus we have no space for a big footprint building,” Hull said in a London Free Press article.
Agricultural and construction equipment, aviation and automotive training may take place in the new Fanshawe facility, located a block over from main campus.
“Some programs tend to need an industrial space with high ceilings and a lot of floor room,” Hull said.
“If you imagine a combine or large construction equipment, we couldn't fit that into some of our regular buildings.”
Mitchell Baran, chief executive of Trudell Medical Group, whose company lost the bidding war with Fanshawe College for the Oxford St. facility, did not agree with the city of London's decision to choose Fanshawe as the suitor but conceded that it was a difficult choice to make for the city.
“It's a tough trade-off for city council to make,” Baran said. “The issue is to whether to take the most money on the table, or do you look at the long term gain?”
Baran acknowledged the economic benefits of Fanshawe training students whose skills are in demand by industries within the city, but also pointed out that only 200 students would get trained per year, a less attractive fact in the deal.
